Production of materials rich in conjugated isomers of long chain polyunsaturated fatty acid residues

ABSTRACT

The invention concerns an isomerisation process, wherein materials comprising non-congugated long chain polyunsaturated fatty acids are subjected to base in the presence of an alcohol with ≧3 C-atoms and ≧2 OH groups and having ratio C-atoms: OH-groups of ≧1.25. The resulting reaction product, containing the conjugated isomers is obtained in higher yield at lower temperatures and are not contaminated by presence of non food grade solvent.

Materials comprising mainly (mainly meaning more than 40% preferably more than 60%) conjugated isomers of long chain polyunsaturated fatty acids are known for their health performance, when applied in food products. In general these products comprise the linoleic acid isomers and from all the different linoleic acid isomers possible the cis 9 trans 11 and trans 10 cis 12 isomers are most often the most abundantly present in these materials, in general in a 1:1 weight ratio.

These products with high contents of different conjugated isomers of the same long chain polyunsaturated fatty acid are useful starting materials for the preparation of materials with other ratio's of the different conjugated isomers of the long chain polyunsaturated fatty acids. Such a process could enable us to prepare products with a limited number of isomers and with very high ratio's of the different isomers of the conjugated polyunsaturated acids. Therefore such a process could enable us to take advantage of the different properties of the different isomers for different purposes. A process to enrich the mix containing the different conjugated isomers of the same long chain polyunsaturated fatty acid in one of the isomers is the subject of our earlier WO patent application WO 97/18320.

The prior art processes for the preparation of above starting materials rich is conjugated polyunsaturated long chain fatty acids have however a number of drawbacks.

According to a first prior art method this material can be made by a process wherein water has to be used as solvent at high pressures and rather high temperatures, resulting in a product wherein far too many isomers of the polyunsaturated fatty acid are present. This means that the product per se, but also the product as a starting material for the enrichment contains too many components. Therefore the product per se is less useful as food ingredient, while also the products obtained after the enrichment process are rather contaminated.

Alternatively the prior art (EP799033) discloses a process, wherein an organic solvent in this case ethylene glycol has to be used. Ethylene glycol however has one main drawback, ie it is not foodgrade and it is very difficult to remove it completely from the reaction product of the isomerisation process. This means that the product per se, but also later products made from it like the enrichment products, are not food grade either. Moreover the yields of desired conjugated polyunsaturated isomers in the reaction product of the conversion in the presence of base are rather low in that instance.

According to an example 1 of a non-prepublished PCT-application with an earlier priority date (WO97/46230) conjugated linoleic acids can be obtained by isomeration of linoleic acid or safflower oil by subjecting the starting material to base (KOH) in propylene glycol at 180° C. for 20 minutes. When we performed this process, we found that the reaction product contained relatively large amounts of other isomers, than the desired conjugated linoleic isomers as well. This probably is due to the severe reaction, conditions applied.

According to another non-published patent application with an earlier priority date (EP 839897) conjugated linolaic acids can be obtained by subjecting fats, containing linoleic acid to base in propylene glycol. However high ratios of base to solvent (6 mole/l) are applied. Moreover the use of fats as starting material has the disadvantage over using free fatty acid as staring material, that a build-up of glycerol in the solvent occurs, when the solvent is recycled in the reaction system.

We found a solution for the above problems that even had another big unexpected advantage. We found that with our new process not only the yields were higher at lower temperatures, while the use of a non-foodgrade solvent could be avoided, but we also found surprisingly that the number of isomers formed was less and that the isomers formed by a subsequent enzymic enrichment process could be separated easier than when ethylene glycol was used as a solvent.

Therefore our invention concerns in the first instance a process for the preparation of materials comprising mainly conjugated isomers of long chain polyunsaturated fatty acids wherein an oil or a free fatty acid composition or an alkyl ester composition thereof, containing at least 25 wt % of at least one isomer other than the conjugated isomers of long chain polyunsaturated fatty acids is subjected to a treatment with a base in a solvent and wherein the solvent is an alcohol with at least 3 C-atoms and at least two hydroxy groups having:

a ratio of number of C-atoms: number of OH groups of at least 1.25 but less than 3.5, preferably from 1.5 to 2.75, while the reaction is carried out between 100 and 180° C., more preferably between 120 and 180° C. This temperature range thus does not include 180° C. per se.

A very suitable solvent is 1.3 dihydroxypropane or 1,2 dihydroxypropane. These solvents are foodgrade so that traces left in the products are not harmful.

The reaction is preferably performed in the absence of glycerol. Herefore free fatty acids are preferably used as starting materials.

The base could be any base but we found that the best results were obtained with NaOH or KOH as base. Suitable concentrations for the base are greater than 0.25 mol/l of solvent, preferably 0.25-3.5 most preferably 1.25-2.75 mole/l. Using higher amounts of base leads to the formation of products, wherein many isomers (in particular C_(10:2) trans/trans-isomers) are present (of our comparative example).

The starting materials for our novel process have to contain at least 25 wt % of at least one isomer other than the conjugated isomers of long chain polyunsaturated fatty acids. This amount preferably is more than 40 wt %, more preferably even more than 60 wt %. The long chain polyunsaturated fatty acids preferably have at least two unsaturations and at least 18 C atoms. The most preferred polyunsaturated long chain fatty acids are the different linoleic and linolenic acid isomers. Linoleic acid eg contains mainly the cis 9 cis 12 diunsaturated carbon chain, while in the different natural occurring linolenic acids the three double bonds are all cis but occur at different positions (non-conjugated) in the carbon chain.

Very suitable starting materials are selected from the group consisting of: sunflower oil, rape seed oil, soybean oil, safflower oil, linseed oil (=high in C_(10:3)) and in particular the free acids derived from these oils and alkylesters from these free acids. These materials are rich in linoleic acid or linolenic acid, in particular C_(10:2), cis 9 cis 12.

The most preferred products of our novel process are products that contain the linoleic isomers cis 9 trans 11 and trans 10 cis 12 in about 1:1 ratio. As disclosed in our earlier WO application 97/18320 these materials can be converted into materials wherein this ratio cis 9 trans 11: trans 10 cis 12 is changed considerably. Our products are suitably isolated from the crude reaction mixture by the addition of diluted acid to the soap formed until and acidic pH is achieved (preferably: pH 1-3), whereupon the oil is separated from the waterlayer and dried.

According to a last embodiment of our invention we claim the use of an oil, or of free fatty acids derived from this oil, or of alkyl esters from these free fatty acids comprising mainly conjugated isomers of long chain polyunsaturated fatty acids for the preparation of a material comprising mainly conjugated isomers of the long chain polyunsaturated fatty acids in another ratio for the conjugated isomers by an enzymic enrichment process using an enzyme that has the ability to discriminate between different isomers of conjugated long chain polyunsaturated fatty acids, wherein the product obtained from the process according to claims 1-5 is applied as starting material in the enzymic enrichment process for the production of the materials with the other ratio of conjugated isomers.

EXAMPLE 1

=Comparative

31 grams of safflower oil were added to a solution of 9.0 grams of NaOH pellets (dissolved by stirring at 60° C.) in 150 gram of ethylene glycol.

The mixture was heated to 135° C., while it was stirred in an inert atmosphere. Samples of 2 ml were collected after 2,19,25 and 49 hours.

after 49 hours the reaction mix was cooled to 80° C. and the soap was split with 80 ml of diluted sulphuric acid (diluted 1:10 with distilled water). The pH of the final mix was 1.5. The oil was separated from the water phase and dried over Na2SO4.

The oil product was analysed with high resolution FAME GC. All materials were analysed in the same way.

The intermediate samples removed during the process were worked in the same way and the oil obtained was also analysed by high resolution FAME GC. The results are given below.

                  TABLE I                                                          ______________________________________                                         COMPOSITION OF STARTING OIL                                                         component    name         wt %                                            ______________________________________                                         C18:2         linoleic acid c9, c12                                                                       74.8                                                  C18:1 oleic acid 14.1                                                          C18:0 stearic acid 2.7                                                         C16:0 palmitic acid 6.7                                                        others  1.7                                                                  ______________________________________                                    

                  TABLE II                                                         ______________________________________                                         PRODUCT AFTER 49 HRS                                                                    component   wt %                                                      ______________________________________                                                C18:2 c9, t11                                                                            28.6                                                            C18:2 t10, c12 28.7                                                            C18:2 others conj 1.6                                                          unidentified 0.3                                                               C18:2 c9, c12 16.4                                                             C18:1 14.2                                                                     C18:0 2.7                                                                      C16:0 6.9                                                                      others 0.6                                                                   ______________________________________                                    

                  TABLE III                                                        ______________________________________                                         Composition of the samples removed intermediately                                time in hrs c9, t11 t10, c12 C18:2 conversion                                ______________________________________                                          2         3.0     2.9       70.4   5.7                                          19 18.1 18.3 38.4 48.7                                                         25 21.7 22.0 30.9 58.7                                                         49 28.2 28.5 16.3 78.2                                                       ______________________________________                                    

EXAMPLE II

Example I was repeated however 1,2 dihydroxy propane was used as solvent. The results are summarized in the tables IV and V

                  TABLE IV                                                         ______________________________________                                         PRODUCT AFTER 49 HRS                                                                    component   wt %                                                      ______________________________________                                                C18:2 c9, t11                                                                            35.6                                                            C18:2 t10, c12 34.9                                                            C18:2 others conj 2.1                                                          unidentified 0.4                                                               C18:2 c9, c12 2.5                                                              C18:1 14.2                                                                     C18:0 2.7                                                                      C16:0 6.9                                                                      others 0.6                                                                   ______________________________________                                    

                  TABLE V                                                          ______________________________________                                         composition of the samples removed intermediately.                               time in hrs c9, t11 t10, c12 C18:2 conversion                                ______________________________________                                          2         6.5     6.3       63.2  15.5                                          19 29.8 29.4 15.0 79.9                                                         25 32.8 32.2  8.9 88.1                                                         49 35.3 34.4  2.5 96.7                                                       ______________________________________                                    

EXAMPLE III

Comparative

Equipment

60 liter autoclave with electrical heating for 250 deg.C. and capable of pressures more than 50 bar. The autoclave has a gate stirrer. It is made from 316 stainless steel.

Method

30 kgs of a 4 molar ag. solution of sodium hydroxide solution was made up in the autoclave. The solution was heated to 60 deg.C. and then 30 kgs of Safflower oil were slowly added whilst stirring.

The stirred autoclave was then heated up to 230 deg.C. This took 5 hours and then maintained at 230 deg.C. for a further 1.5 hours at which point the autoclave was cooled in 1 hour to 90 deg.C. The reacted mixture was then run out of the autoclave into a drum and mixed with an equal quantity of hot water.

To obtain the free fatty acid product, the soap produced in the reactor was split with acid. With the soap solution at between 90 and 100 deg.C., 1N sulphuric acid was slowly added and stirred until the pH was less than 3, at which point the soap reacted to produce free fatty acid which could then allowed to separate and then decanted off.

Results

The Safflower originally contained 76.6% of linoleic acid (cis-9,cis-12). Of this more than 90% was conjugated to give the following interpretation on High Res GLC:

    ______________________________________                                                       Feed oil                                                                             Conjugated                                                 ______________________________________                                         14:0            0.1     0.1                                                      16:0 6.8 6.9                                                                   18:0 2.5 2.6                                                                   18:1 13.4 13.3                                                                 18:2 c9/c12 76.6 4.7                                                           20+  0.6 0.8                                                                   CLA c9 t11 --  27.9                                                            CLA t10 c12 -- 20.3                                                            CLA others -- 23.4                                                           ______________________________________                                    

EXAMPLE IV

Comparative

30 grams of safflower oil were added to a solution of 75.1 grams of KOH pellets (dissolved by stirring at 100° C.) in 150.1 grams of propylene glycol. (ratio of base: solvent: 9 mole/l).

The mixture was heated to 125° C., while it was stirred in an inert atmosphere. After 16.5 hours the reaction mix became very thick and the reaction was stopped. The sample from the end mixture was taken and the soap was splitted with diluted sulphuric acid (diluted 1:10 with distilled water) until the pH of the water phase was 1.5. The oil was separated from the water phase and dried over Na₂ SO₄. The oil was analyzed by high resolution FAME GC.

                  TABLE                                                            ______________________________________                                         PRODUCT AFTER 16.5 HRS                                                                  component  wt %                                                       ______________________________________                                                C14:0    0.13                                                             C16:0 7.55                                                                     C16:1 0.13                                                                     C17:0 0.05                                                                     C18:0 2.86                                                                     C18:1 11.81                                                                    C18:2 1.21                                                                     C20:0 0.04                                                                     C18:3 0.33                                                                     C20:1 0.21                                                                     C18:2 c9, t11 22.32                                                            C18:2 c11, t13 2.65                                                            C18:2 t10, c12 21.31                                                           C18:2 c, c 4.07                                                                C18:2 t, t 23.48                                                               C18:2 oxid 0.20                                                                C22:0 0.22                                                                     others 1.43                                                                  ______________________________________                                    

EXAMPLE V

30 g of KOH were dissolved in 200 ml of 1,2 dihydroxypropane (=2.7 mole/l). 30 g of free fatty acids from safflower oil were added to this mixture and were reacted under nitrogen at 135° C. for 47 hrs. The soap formed was worked up with diluted sulfuric acid (10%). The product obtained was analysed by GLC and the following product composition was found:

    ______________________________________                                                component                                                                               wt %                                                           ______________________________________                                                C14:0     0.2                                                             C16:0 4.2                                                                      C18:0 1.6                                                                      C18:1 22.5                                                                     C18:2 t 1.6                                                                    C18:2 c 24.0                                                                   C18:2 c9 t11 20.7                                                              C18:2 c11 t13 0.6                                                              C18:2 t10 c12 20.3                                                             C18:2 9, 11 cc 0.6                                                             C18:2 10, 12 cc 0.6                                                          ______________________________________                                    

EXAMPLE VI

210 g of NaOH was dissolved in 2100 ml 1,2 dihydropropane, (=2.5 mol/l). 700 g of free fatty acids from sunflower oil were added to this mixture and were reacted for 47 hrs at 135° C. The soap formed was worked up by adding a diluted (10%) sulfuric acid solution until pH=2. The product obtained was analysed by GLC. This composition of the product was:

    ______________________________________                                         component     % in product                                                                             in starting FFA                                        ______________________________________                                         C14:0         0.2       0.2                                                      C16:0 3.8 3.9                                                                  C18:0 1.5 1.5                                                                  C18:1 22.0   21.9                                                              C18:2 c9 c12 7.6 71.5                                                          C18:2 c9 t11 30.6  --                                                          C18:2 c11 t13 0.5 --                                                           C18:2 t10 c12 30.3  --                                                         C18:2 c9 c11 0.7 --                                                            C18:2 c10 c12 0.7 --                                                         ______________________________________                                     

What is claimed is:
 1. Process for the preparation of materials comprising mainly conjugated isomers of long chain polyunsaturated fatty acids wherein a starting material comprising an oil or a free fatty, acid composition or an alkyl ester composition thereof, containing at least 25 wt % of at least one isomer other than the conjugated isomers of long chain polyunsaturated fatty acids is subjected to a treatment with a base in a solvent and wherein the solvent is an alcohol with at least 3 C-atoms and at least two hydroxy groups having:a ratio of number of C-atoms; number of OH groups of at least 1.25 but less than 3.5 while the reaction is carried out between 100 and 180° C.
 2. Process according to claim 1, wherein the solvent is 1,3 dihydroxy propane or 1,2 dihydroxy propane.
 3. Process according to claims 1 or 2, wherein the base is NaOH or KOH.
 4. Process according to claim 1, wherein the base is applied in concentrations of 0.25 mole/l-3.5 mol/l solvent.
 5. Process according to claim 1, wherein the starting material containing at least one isomer other than the conjugated isomers of long chain polyunsaturated fatty acids contains at least 40 wt % of long chain-polyunsaturated fatty acid, containing at least two unsaturations and at least 18 C-atoms.
 6. Process according to claim 5, wherein the starting materials containing at least one isomer other than the conjugated isomers of long chain polyunsaturated fatty acids is selected from the group consisting of: sunflower oil, rape seed oil, soybean oil, safflower oil, linseed oil the free acids derived from these oils and alkylesters from these free acids.
 7. Process according to claim 1, wherein the soap formed after the reaction is acidified by addition of diluted acid until an acidic pH is achieved, whereupon the oil present is separated from the waterlayer.
 8. In a process wherein a starting material selected from the group consisting of an oil, free fatty acids derived from this oil and alkyl esters of these free fatty acids, and comprising mainly conjugated isomers of long chain polyunsaturated fatty acids is converted into a material comprising mainly conjugated isomers of the long chain polyunsaturated fatty acids in a different ratio for the conjugated isomers by an enzymic enrichment process using an enzyme that has the ability to discriminate between different isomers of conjugated long chain polyunsaturated fatty acids, the improvement wherein the product obtained from the process according to claim 1 is said starting material in the enzymic enrichment process to produce the material with said different ratio of conjugated isomers.
 9. Process according to claim 1 wherein the ratio of C-atoms to OH groups is from 1.5 to 2.75.
 10. Process according to claim 5 wherein the starting material contains at least 60 wt % of long chain polyunsaturated fatty acid. 